Summers span decades. Winters can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.

It will stretch from the south where heat breeds plots, lusts and intrigues; to the vast and savage eastern lands; all the way to the frozen north, where an 800-foot wall of ice protects the kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond. Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords and honest men…all will play the Game of Thrones.

HBO’s latest epic series is based on George R. Martin’s fantasy series A Song Of Ice And Fire, where political and sexual intrigue abound as seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros.

Ramin Djawadi (Iron Man) composes a score of vast scope and grandeur.

Track List:

1. Main Title (1:46)
2. North Of The Wall (3:48)
3. Goodbye Brother (3:07)
4. The Kingsroad (2:06)
5. The King’s Arrival (3:34)
6. Love In The Eyes (4:00)
7. A Raven From King’s Landing (1:16)
8. The Wall (1:59)
9. Things I Do For Love (1:52)
10. A Golden Crown (1:38)
11. Winter Is Coming (2:42)
12. A Bird Without Feathers (2:02)
13. Await The King’s Justice (2:00)
14. You’ll Be Queen One Day (1:36)
15. The Assassin’s Dagger (1:19)
16. To Vaes Dothrak (1:29)
17. Jon’s Honor (2:35)
18. Black Of Hair (1:40)
19. You Win Or You Die (1:57)
20. Small Pack Of Wolves (1:57)
21. Game Of Thrones (1:18)
22. Kill Them All (2:35)
23. The Pointy End (3:16)
24. Victory Does Not Make Us Conquerors (1:35)
25. When The Sun Rises In The West (2:40)
26. King Of The North (1:28)
27. The Night’s Watch (1:44)
28. Fire And Blood (4:30)
29. Finale (2:31)

Album Notes and Credits

Notes & Personnel Info

Composer: Ramin Djawadi.

Composer: Ramin Djawadi.

Liner Note Authors: David Benioff; D.B. Weiss.

As with everything associated with HBO's adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice book series, Ramin Djawadi's Game of Thrones score brings the characters, countries, and moods of Martin's world to life with aplomb. Massive string sections give the music necessary majesty, particularly on "Main Title," but Djawadi adds heavy percussion and more exotic touches, such as prickly dulcimer and autoharp to give a more tribal and warlike feel befitting the show's scheming and incipient battles. Tracks such as "North of the Wall," which boasts an icy atmosphere and enough shocks to do a horror movie score proud, and "Love in the Eyes," which captures the wilder feel of the Dothraki people with smoky flutes and rolling percussion that evoke Peter Gabriel's landmark Passion score, convey Westeros' geography as well as its feelings. Djawadi telegraphs those emotions ably, however, particularly with "Goodbye Brother"'s slow, Celtic-tinged melody and "When the Sun Rises in the West"'s mournfully droning flutes. In between are vivid mood pieces like the medieval pomp of "The King's Arrival" and the palpable danger of "Small Pack of Wolves," which could be Westeros' equivalent of heavy metal. Most powerful of all, however, might be "Fire and Blood," which grows from wisps of strings and flutes into towering drum tattoos. In all, Game of Thrones is a triumphant score that reflects the care involved in the entire adaptation. ~ Heather Phares